


Fearful Yet Strong

by how_will_this_go



Category: HEARTBEAT (Video Game)
Genre: Arachnophobia, Brotherly Affection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2020-03-05 19:58:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18835708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/how_will_this_go/pseuds/how_will_this_go
Summary: Blitz was strong, definitely strong enough to crush such a weak spider. Instead, Blitz gently nudged the creature into the palm of his hand.“Wh-What are you doing??” Rick blurted out, “Smoosh that thing!”“This spider isn’t going to hurt you, Rick.” Blitz soothed. “I mean, look how small the thing is!”A story in which Rick is afraid of spiders and Blitz is a big softy.





	Fearful Yet Strong

It was just another Friday at the Galliard/Morax household (Ann firmly insisted on only having it be the Galliard household, but Chip threatened to throw a fit, so it was combined). In his room, Rick was attempting to enjoy the latest issue of _The Iron Smasher_ , keyword being attempting.

“This is so stupid…” Rick muttered to himself while flipping through the pages of the comic. The writers had the audacity to give the titular character, Iron Smasher, a sword! Iron Smasher owning a sword was COMPELETLY out of character, not only that but it removes any sense of uniqueness the hero had. “This new author needs to step their game up,” Rick scoffed putting the comic on the nightstand beside his bed, “Even Ann could do a better jo-“

Rick’s complaints were cut short. While he was putting his comic down, he spotted it, the biggest spider he had ever seen, sitting right on the wall above his lamp. Radio silence buzzed through Rick’s head as he attempted to process the situation. He stepped back as the hairs on the back of his neck stood up, every instinct in his body was telling him to run, but he knew that if he ran he would lose track of it, meaning that it could lay eggs in the corner or crawl onto his face while he was asleep. A chill ran down Rick’s spine at the thought of that, he knew he had to take care of this now. Scraping his eyes away from the arachnid on the wall, Rick quickly scanned the floor for a weapon he could use against the eight-legged menace before he set his sights on a math textbook laying on the floor. Rick took a shaky breath and picked up the textbook, it had a solid weight to it, definitely strong enough to smash a spider. As Rick moved closer and closer to the spider, the anxiety in his chest grew stronger, his palms started to sweat, his legs started to shake, and his breathing became more rapid. Right as he was within arm’s length of the creature, Rick quickly retraced his steps backwards. He couldn’t do it. What if the spider crawled onto the book and onto his hand? The thought alone sent a chill up his spine. He needed a new idea.

After standing completely still for a good two minutes, Rick’s panicked brain came up with an idea. If Rick was afraid of the spider crawling onto his arm because it was attached to the book, he could just crush the spider by throwing the book at it! Confident that his new plan would succeed, Rick brought the textbook up over his head and flung it as hard as he could. A resounding thud echoed throughout the room. Unfortunately, Rick missed his mark by a good…one and a half feet.

The spider, disturbed by the ruckus, started to quickly move as far away from the disturbance as possible. It was at this movement Rick finally went to his last resort.

“BLIIIIIIITZZZZ!!”

Blitz came crashing into the room, eyes wide and filled with both panic and concern. “Rick?!? Rick?!? Are you okay? Where does it hurt? Do I need to call an ambulance?” Blitz questioned, words coming out of his mouth a mile a minute.

“There’s a spider…” Rick mumbled, feeling silly now that someone had snapped him out of his arachnid paranoia. “Can-Can you get rid of it?” He asked.

Seeing that Rick wasn’t hurt in any way, Blitz let out a relived sigh and nodded, turning his attention to the spider on Rick’s wall. Carefully, Blitz climbed up onto the bed and brought his hands to either side of the spider. Blitz was strong, definitely strong enough to crush such a weak spider. Instead, Blitz gently nudged the creature into the palm of his hand.

“Wh-What are you doing??” Rick blurted out, “Smoosh that thing!”

Blitz slowly got off the bed and walked towards Rick, kneeling to face his conjurer, Blitz slowly opened his palm to reveal the spider slowly walking in a circle. “This spider isn’t going to hurt you, Rick.” Blitz soothed. “I mean, look how small the thing is!”

“The small ones are the most poisonous! Now put it down before it bites you and you die!” Rick snapped. “This was EXACTLY like what happened in _Fighters for Absolute Honor_ #25 where Flynn-“

“Rick.” Blitz said, in his ‘Please don’t tell me what happened in issue 25 again, we’ve been over this’ tone of voice. “For the last time, this spider won’t hurt you, it’s only a common house spider.”

Rick took another look at the spider; it did seem pretty small and harmless. He sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Whatever, Just…. put it outside please?”

“Right, right. I’ll get to that.” Blitz said as he made his way towards the front door. Just before he went to reach for the handle, he turned his head back towards Rick. “Want to see it leave?” He asked.

“Why would I want to do that?” Rick questioned. Why on earth would he want anything else to do with his eight-legged nemesis?

“Well,” Blitz started, “A common way for people to get over their fears is to expose themselves to them. So, I figured maybe watching our friend here go back home would be a decent start for that. I’ll be there too of course, so if it does turn out to be some deadly super spider, I can protect you” He added, only half joking.

Rick thought about the offer for a minute. It was true that this fear had been with him for a good while and being rid of it would be a large weight off his back, and with Blitz around he was sure nothing bad could happen. “Alright fine, I’ll watch.”

“Thank you, Rick. Now let’s go.” Blitz said cheerfully. They quickly made their way out of the building and near a patch of grass outside, Blitz and Rick knelt to the cool ground. Slowly, Blitz uncapped his hands and lightly brushed the spider into the blades of grass. “See, it’s just going back home to its pack…Do spiders have packs? Doesn’t matter, it’s going.” Blitz said, patting Rick on the shoulder.

“R-Right...” Rick mumbled. As happy he was that the spider was finally gone, it still freaked him out. Something about the way all eight of its thin hairy legs were able to move both too fast and too slow at the same time just didn’t sit right with him. “Can we go back inside now? I don’t want more of those things to show up.”

“Sure, but first I need to ask, do you think this helped you conquer your fear at all?” Blitz questioned hopefully.

“I mean…Maybe?” Rick mumbled. “I still don’t want any in my room or the house.” Once those words left his mouth, he realized how pathetic they sounded. It was a tiny spider and he was still so shaken up about it. He felt lamer than a sidekick right now.

“We’ll count that as progress then! Now then, let’s head back home.” Blitz cheered as he got to his feet and started walking back home.

“Hey, Blitz? Could you hold on a moment?” Rick asked quietly.

“Hmm?” Blitz hummed, turning back to face the young conjurer. “Everything okay, Rick?”

“I need…To ask you a question.” Rick mumbled. Taking a deep breath, he stuck his hands back into the pockets of his jeans. “Do you think…That I’m…I’m a coward?”

“C-Coward? Gosh no, Rick! Why on earth would you ask that?” Blitz exclaimed in surprise.

“I mean, I’m afraid of spiders. Tiny, harmless, docile spiders! I just feel…weak?” Rick sighed as he halfheartedly nudged a pebble on the sidewalk.

Blitz took a deep breath, walked over and put his hand on Rick’s shoulder. He knew he had to handle this situation carefully as to erase any doubt in his conjurer’s mind. As Rick’s self-appointed big brother, he didn’t want self-confidence to be an issue for the kid. “Rick, being afraid of something doesn’t make you a coward or weak. Everyone’s afraid of something! You, me, Ann, even Chip! You’re not a coward at all, when you first saw the spider, what did you do?”

“Panic?” Rick mumbled.

“No! Well, maybe just a bit, but you also fought through the fear and threw a book at it! You fought back! And yes, while we may have a little dent in the wall now, what matters is that you fought against that fear and panic. Being afraid of something isn’t a sign of weakness, think about all the heroes in your comic books! They’re all afraid of something.”

“I…I guess…” Rick muttered, slightly embarrassed at getting a pep talk, he wasn’t exactly the fondest for mushy stuff like this.

“Now come on,” Blitz said softly, “I’ll make you some meringues at home.”

Rick quickly wiped his noise on the sleeve of his shirt. “Okay. Thanks…Blitz.” He said, and after a couple seconds he added under his breath, “You’re my favorite hero...”

Blitz could only tearfully smile in response.

**Author's Note:**

> spiders scare me
> 
> anyways, I wanted to write something before my summer classes started up. I also wanted to write for characters that don't have too much representation in terms of written work, and so here we are. thank you for reading <3


End file.
